Micaiah to Ahab, to tell us that the wages of sin is death--to tell
us that those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind--to set
before us at every turn good or evil, that we may choose between
them, and live or die according to our choice. For do not fancy
that there are no prophets in our days, unless the gift of the Holy
Spirit, which is promised to all who believe, be a dream and a lie.
There are prophets nowadays,--yea, I say unto you, and more than
prophets. Is not the Bible a prophet? Is not every page in it a
prophecy to us, foretelling God's mercies and God's punishments
towards men. Is not every holy and wise book, every holy and wise
preacher and writer, a prophet, expounding to us God's laws,
foretelling to us God's opinions of our deeds, both good and evil?
Ay, is not every man a prophet to himself? That "still small voice"
in a man's heart, which warns him of what is evil--that feeling
which makes him cheerful and free when he has done right, sad and
ashamed when he has done wrong--is not that a prophecy in a man's
own heart? Truly it is. It is the voice of God within us--it is
the Spirit of God striving with our spirits, whether we will hear,
or whether we will forbear--setting before us what is righteous, and
noble, and pure, and what is manly and God-like--to see whether we
will obey that voice, or whether we will obey our own selfish lusts,
which tempt us to please ourselves--to pamper ourselves, our
greediness, covetousness, ambition, or self-conceit. And again, I
say, we have our prophets. Every preacher of righteousness is a
prophet. Every good tract is a prophet. That Prayer-book, those
Psalms, those Creeds, those Collects, which you take into your
mouths every Sunday, what are they but written prophecies, crying
unto us with the words of holy men of old, greater than Micaiah, or
David, or Elijah, "Hear thou the word of the Lord?" The spirits of
those who wrote that Prayer-book--the spirits of just men made